Comet Over Hollywood: Hot off the presses: unethical reporters in classic films

Thursday

Mar 14, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 14, 2013 at 5:44 PM

Jessica Pickens

A man is killed and sent C.O.D. to a Hollywood actress.

Rather than call the police, the actress calls her reporter friend to help her out.

The reporter investigates the case like he’s a detective.

He sneaks in houses searching for clues. The reporter finds jewels that can be used as evidence and puts them in ice cube trays to hide them from police.

As these events occurred in “The Corpse Came C.O.D.” (1947) starring George Brent and Joan Blondell, my dad turns to me and asks, “I hope you don’t do these things at work.”

Later when Brent gets in a fist fight with a bad guy my dad asks, “Is there anyone at the Star that would be able to do that?”

As a reporter who loves classic movies, I go out of my way to watch films that have to do with newspaper life or that have reporters as the heroes of the film.

However, if I used the researching methods that reporters used in the films, I would most likely get fired.

In classic films, reporters are often depicted solving a crime like a police officer and receive information by unethical means. At the Star, we do a lot of research on stories, but I doubt we will ever solve a crime.

In the 1930s Torchy Blane film series, Torchy is constantly at odds with her detective boyfriend Steve McBride for being where she shouldn’t be.

The films follow the wise-cracking female reporter in nine films, played by Glenda Farrell, Lola Lane and Jane Wyman.

Torchy can be seen eavesdropping, bugging rooms, hiding in trash cans and following bad guys to get the scoop on a story.

If I hid in a trashcan to find out the latest secrets of Cleveland County, not only would that be unethical and against media laws, I would also smell pretty bad.

In another George Brent film “You Can’t Escape Forever” (1942), managing editor, Brent will get hunches by tugging his ear like he’s communicating with somebody via Morse code.

Then Brent will come up with a fantastic hunch that he will print in the paper, which usually ends up being true.

If reporters worked solely on hunches without fact checking, the paper would be full of corrections that had to be run, rather than news stories.

In “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) reporters James Stewart and Ruth Hussey pose as family friends at the wedding of Tracy Lord, played by Katharine Hepburn. The two are tabloid writers there to get information on the story.

Getting information under false pretenses is unethical by today’s standards and would most likely leave you with a lawsuit.

Though there are several comedic representations of newspapers, there are films that represent journalism in a truer light, such as “The Story of G.I. Joe” (1945) about war journalist Ernie Pyle or “Citizen Kane” (1940) about the power of journalism.

As someone who works in newspapers, I don’t take offense to the unethical journalism in the 1930s and 1940s films, because I know most of it is there for comedic relief.

It doesn’t make me stop watching the films; you just have to take it all with a grain of salt, as you would with any movie.

Clearly newspapers have changed a great deal from the 1930s and 1940s from today. However, it does make me wonder how media laws and ethics have changed in the past 75 years.

So for my father: No dad, we don’t do any of that at the Star.

Film columns by Jessica Pickens run every Sunday in The Shelby Star.

Reach Jessica Pickens at 704-669-3332 or jpickens@shelbystar.com. Follow on Twitter at @StarJPickens and at her film blog, Comet Over Hollywood at www.cometoverhollywood.com

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